What is The Marine Highway Initiative?
The Marine Highway Initiative is an effort to establish a "container on barge" service stretching from West Sacramento to Oakland with stops in Stockton. The purpose of which, is to provide a viable marine highway (short sea shipping) service between regional ports and improve goods movement throughout Northern California. In addition, this initiative will decrease congestion on major roadways and significantly reduce the number of truck emissions associated with the current distribution system.

How is the Marine Highway Funded?
The Marine Highway is funded through a grant under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 TIGER program. This program is administered by the Maritime Administration (MARAD) and managed by the Port of Stockton with support from the Ports of Oakland and West Sacramento.

What is the Marine Highway Concept?
The Marine Highway Concept is similar to other barge systems in the United States. Containers arrive to the Port of Oakland through large vessels from various shipping companies. These containers are offloaded from the vessels and loaded onto one of two barges. These barges, with the help of tugs, are pushed/towed up to the Delta to the ports of Stockton or West Sacramento. When the barge arrives at these Ports, the containers are offloaded and new containers are loaded onto the barge. Once loaded, the barge heads downstream to Oakland where those containers are offloaded and shipped overseas.

When is the Service expected to start?
The service is expected to start in 2013.

Who will operate the Barge Service?
The barge service will be operated by the Port of Stockton, for more information please visit http://www.portofstockton.com/.

How does the Marine Highway compare with standard method of trucking
The benefits to shipping containers through the Marine Highway barge service are two fold. First, where the local community is concerned, reduced pollution, increased traffic flow, and reductions in highway congestion and maintenance costs are just some of the benefits that can be realized. Second, the service aids shippers by reducing the costs to ship heavy containers and decrease the costs associated with truck trips.

For more detail on the cost comparison of trucking vs. Marine Highway transportation please see the Marine Highway Calculator provided by the Marine Highways Cooperative.